


Of Lice And Love

by wunderlichkind



Series: wunder's OtherOutlanderTales [9]
Category: Outlander (TV), Outlander Series - Diana Gabaldon
Genre: Book 6: A Breath of Snow and Ashes, Canon Compliant, F/M, letters to a friend
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-03
Updated: 2019-01-03
Packaged: 2019-10-03 18:43:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 557
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17289368
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wunderlichkind/pseuds/wunderlichkind
Summary: Brianna writes to Lord John Grey to inform him of the discovery of Jem's paternity.





	Of Lice And Love

_Fraser’s Ridge, January, 1775_

John –

 

I trust this letter finds you well and happy, as it leaves me. We have celebrated a wonderful Hogmanay and start the new year hopeful, although there are difficulties on the horizon that I believe you’ll hear about soon enough.

 

This is not a letter of worries, though. Last month, a weight was lifted off my shoulders. It was a weight I’ve been carrying for so long, it had become a part of me. You helped bear that weight as best as you could, so I shall lift it off your shoulders too.

 

Jem – my son, as you will remember – caught lice about a month ago. It was such a bad case that we ended up shaving all the hair off his head, and that was when we found it – a curious, big brown splotch right behind Jemmy’s ear. Of course I was worried at first, discussing its possible implications with Mama, when Roger reassured me that he’d had one just like it for all his life, and it hadn’t been of any concern. This was as close to a confirmation of Jem’s paternity as anyone could offer, and a vindication of the certainty I have always felt.

 

We have been a family for almost five years now, and Roger has never treated Jem as anything other than his own flesh and blood. But I know he carried his own part of this weight on his shoulders and I am beyond grateful it has lifted for all of us. I may not be able to completely rid myself of the memory of Stephen Bonnet, but Roger deserves to live without that shadow hanging over his head.

 

He has gone through so much these last five years – he has uprooted his entire life for me, he has been abducted, beaten and enslaved, and then came back from that only to find me pregnant. He had to find his place in a family that had done terribly wrong by him, with a wife that had been violated and a son he neither expected, nor had certainty shared his blood. And as if that wasn’t enough already, he was wrongfully hanged. The miracle of his survival does not negate the part of himself he did lose, his voice. He had to fight tirelessly to build himself up again, to become a new version of himself, one he still recognized.

 

And he did it. He stood by me through all of it, he built a relationship with my father despite their differences, he became a father himself despite what his own internal struggles might have been. He did it all for me. For our family.

 

I’ve been rambling, and you’ll forgive me for it. What I’m really writing for is not to gush about my husband, but to thank you, John.

 

Thank you, with all my heart. Thank you for not marrying me when I demanded you do. Thank you for standing by me regardless, through the tumultuous phase of life you encountered me in. Thank you for being a true friend and bearing with me the burden I shared with you many years ago. I hope you’ll find some of the joy and love I’ve felt this past month enclosed in this letter, and I hope I’ll hear from you soon.

 

Yours affectionately,

Brianna Mackenzie   


End file.
